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Steve · 09-14-2017, 02:15 AM

(09-13-2017 09:58 AM)John Fazio Wrote: Everyone:

A little clarification re Miss Porterfield. Please Google "Weik a new story of the Lincoln Assassination". Then hit "The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine". This will take you to the 1913 issue. There, beginning on p. 559, you will find the article. Miss Porterfield was from Greencastle, Indiana. She happened to be in Washington at the time because her mother brought her there. On p. 561 there is the business about Booth asking her how to spell "tyrannis". Reck ("Last 24 Hours") mentions the incident (p. 105) and lists Weik's article as his source. I haven't checked, but it's a good bet that everyone who mentions this exchange between Miss Porterfield and Booth is using the same source--Weik's article. Her account squares well with everything else we know about April 14. It's an interesting read and I am inclined to credit it fairly well. I believe everyone knows that I do not reject tradition too easily. Everything has a root. I found no reference in her account to John Porterfield, the Secret Service agent in Canada.

John

I used the information from The Century article to track down her marriage record:

and then used that and the article to find her in

1860 census (transcription errors look at original image):
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC7M-9BQ

1865 New York census:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVNJ-97LL

1855 marriage of her mother and stepfather (3rd record on the right):
https://www.nysoclib.org/sites/default/f...856-28.jpg

and then using the information from that marriage record to find her mother's first marriage record in 1842 in Davidson County, Tennessee:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZ7P-PHZ

Miss Porterfield was Luella Porterfield born around 1847 to Robert Porterfield and Mary Figures. According to the 1860 census, she was born in Kentucky, although that's the only record mentioning her birthplace that I've found so far so that can't be confirmed. Her parents were from Tennessee.

According to this short bio of John Porterfield, the Confederate agent from Nashville Tennessee, he was born in 1819 and died in 1874:
https://books.google.com/books?id=fKqJFX...74&f=false

The Findagrave image of his tombstone:
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cg...d=31514052

According to several online trees (which I have yet to confirm) Luella's father, Robert Porterfield, and John Porterfield were brothers. If true, that would make her John Porterfield's niece.